This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
In the Tazawako area of Akita Prefecture, a 650-meter tunnel has sat unused since 1940 — abandoned twice over, first by the railway it was built to serve, and later by anyone willing to walk through it after dark.
The Legend
The tunnel dates to the Meiji period, built as an access route for the planned Tazawako-Senbokuson railway. According to local accounts, the railway project collapsed for financial reasons before the tunnel was even completed in 1886, leaving a finished piece of infrastructure with no train line to justify it — and no real purpose from the start. It fell into disuse over the following decades and was formally abandoned by 1940.
The tunnel's central legend is a ghost train: a locomotive said to appear from the darkness without warning, run rapidly through the tunnel, and vanish before it reaches the other side. Separately, locals describe spirits resembling an old man or woman wandering the tunnel's interior, most often described with red eyes and no visible mouth — a detail specific enough that it recurs across multiple independent tellings.
What's Actually Verifiable
We could not verify a specific documented incident behind either the ghost train or the faceless figures. What is more solidly established is the tunnel's real, practical history: a railway project that failed financially before completion is a plausible, well-documented pattern in Meiji-era Japan, where ambitious rail expansion frequently outran available funding — meaning the tunnel's abandonment likely has nothing to do with anything supernatural and everything to do with ordinary 19th-century infrastructure economics.
Why This One Draws Filmmakers
Chiaki Tunnel has reportedly been used as a filming location for multiple horror productions and television dramas over the years — a detail that sets it apart from the many similar tunnels on this list that remain purely local curiosities. That kind of media attention tends to reinforce a legend's reach well beyond what word of mouth alone could manage, turning a regional ghost story into one referenced more widely across Japanese horror media.
Two Kinds of Abandonment
What distinguishes Chiaki Tunnel from most haunted infrastructure on this site is that it was abandoned twice over — first by the railway project that never got to use it, and later, decades on, by the region itself, once the tunnel's practical purpose had permanently disappeared. Most tunnel legends describe a working structure that later became haunted; this one never really had a working period at all, which may be part of why its atmosphere reads as emptier than most, a tunnel built for a purpose it never got to serve.
Can You Visit?
The tunnel remains abandoned and unmaintained, which means any visit carries genuine structural risk independent of the ghost story. Visitors drawn by the tunnel's reputation as a filming location and paranormal destination should weigh that real, physical hazard above any interest in the reported phenomena.
Ghost-Hunting Gear & Further Reading
- Books on Japanese abandoned places and haunted history
- Akita Prefecture travel and railway history guides
As an Amazon Associate, this site earns from qualifying purchases.
Comments